A new self-confidence in the EU, the defense of its own interests, a defense against migrants and a commitment to Ukraine: Italy’s new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has announced a nationalist policy in the Mediterranean country.
In her first government statement in parliament, the party leader of the far-right Fratelli d’Italia said: “We want to release the best energies from this nation and give all Italians a future with more freedom, justice, prosperity and security.”
Meloni won the election with a legal alliance. On October 22, she was sworn in as the country’s first female head of government. The 45-year-old intends to implement the sometimes radical demands from the election program.
In the evening she clearly won the first of two necessary votes of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies. Of 389 MPs present, 235 voted in favor of their government, 154 against and 5 abstained. Overall, the larger of the two chambers of parliament holds 400 MPs. On Wednesday, Meloni has to face the second vote in the smaller Senate.
Proposals for EU changes announced
In the direction of Brussels, Meloni, who is considered EU-skeptical, said that she wanted central rules to be modified. Italy will follow all current agreements of the European Union. But her executive will make proposals “to change those rules that haven’t worked, starting with the current debate about reforming the Stability and Growth Pact,” Meloni said. She also wants Italy to be heard more “in the European institutions”.
Poor prospects for civil sea rescue
Meloni underscored the will of the right-wing coalition to keep migrants across the Mediterranean off the coasts of southern Italy and to block their boats as they leave Africa. Centers should be set up there to check who is allowed to translate. Sea rescuers sharply criticize the line. According to Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, the German rescue ship “Humanity 1” and the “Ocean Viking”, which sails under the Norwegian flag, are not legally in use. According to the Ansa news agency, the flag states should be informed. The ships have more than 300 migrants on board.
Commitment to Ukraine
Meloni continued to pledge Italy’s full support to Ukraine. “And not just because we cannot accept a war of aggression and the violation of the territorial unity of a sovereign state,” said Meloni. “But also because this is the only way we can defend our national interest in the best possible way.” The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj, who had spoken to Meloni on the phone, expressed optimism about the cooperation in a newspaper interview.
Meloni made history with her election as the country’s first female prime minister, saying it also put her “a burden on her shoulders”. She listed some of the women in Italian history who had helped pave her way.
“Never felt sympathy for anti-democratic regimes”
Also significant in history is that the ultra-right Meloni gave her keynote speech 100 years after the fascists seized power. She “never felt sympathy or closeness to anti-democratic regimes. For no regime, not even for fascism,” said Meloni. She called the fascist “racial laws of 1938” under which Jews were harassed, persecuted and deported in the country “the low point of Italian history” and “a disgrace that will mark our people forever”.
Former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte of the opposition Five Stars criticized Meloni’s speech as “empty” and full of “demagogic slogans”. Debora Serracchiani from the Social Democrats spoke of a “more ideological than programmatic manifesto”.
